Public sector pay rises are bitter pill to swallow for millions who have suffered over past 20 months
A bitter pill
FOR public sector staff, yesterday was a very lucrative day.
For the rest of us — especially pensioners — the news was less good.
Teachers, nurses, prison guards, police and the Armed Forces all got inflation-busting pay rises worth £9.4billion.
The hardline BMA was offered an eye-watering 22 per cent over two years to bring an end to the crippling junior doctors’ strike.
For the millions who have suffered during the past 20 months of politically-motivated chaos, this will be a bitter pill to swallow.
Firstly, it looks like a reward for militant trade union action, at a time when new roads and hospitals are being cancelled because of a supposed £22billion “black hole” in the nation’s finances.
Secondly, it’s the wider public who will pay for the wage rises — with the Chancellor confirming she will hike taxes in the October Budget, and strip winter fuel payments from all bar the poorest pensioners.
Thirdly, what’s the betting Labour’s other union pals will now demand bumper pay rises of their own, starting with bungs for GPs and train drivers?
The Government’s case is that everybody benefits from settling ongoing disputes. The economy will no longer be clobbered by school closures and other walkouts that cost us billions.
The long-term sick will be able to get back to work as NHS waiting lists start to be cleared. In other words, we’ll all ultimately be better off.
Let’s hope the PM and Chancellor have their calculations right.
Beyond belief
OUR hearts go out to the victims and families of the Southport stabbings.
Such brutality aimed at young children is horrifying. The motivation behind it is beyond comprehension.
After Nottingham and Hainault, how many more such attacks must we endure?
Air heads
IMAGINE saving all year for a holiday only to find some private-school-educated Cressida in a Just Stop Oil T-shirt blocking your airport departure gate.
Middle-class Carbonystas have no idea of how much hard-working families need a sunshine break.
The eco-loons Just Don’t Get It.
Arc de triumph
IT’S a Team GB goldrush — and, gloriously, it’s at the expense of the French!
For our Eventing team to beat France after three days of hard-fought competition was wonderful enough.
But the boos directed at Tom Pidcock by the gutted French crowd made his mountain bike victory all the sweeter.